Valve has this week signed an important deal with Dell that will see the Steam games service client preinstalled on all new Alienware desktop PCs and laptops.

Alienware is a gaming and high performance PC brand meaning the majority of customers are going to be gamers anyway. Now Valve has ensured the first digital gaming service they are exposed to is its own Steam client.

Kotaku suspect that Dell aren’t the only manufacturer Valve will be targeting and we could see Steam added to the usual suspects of bloatware we all find waiting for us on first boot of a new machine. Whether it’s another application to uninstall or one less install depends on your gaming preferences.

There is no information yet on when Steam will start being added to Alienware systems, but expect it to happen by next month so as to capture sales at what is likely one of Alienware’s busiest periods of the year.

[UPDATE] I forgot to mention you also get a free copy of Portal which is worth around $20.

Although managing to do a deal with Dell for its gaming rigs is significant, it’s the wider picture we need to look at with this move. Valve is getting more aggressive with trying to spread its Steam service to more machines and therefore potentially boost accounts and game sales.

You can see why the company is doing this. Digital game downloads are becoming more popular and other services are appearing and seeing success, most notably Direct2Drive which regularly does special offers to attract new customers and push up game sales. That competition is only going to get more intense and there is every possibility publishers and retail store chains will join the market if more consoles go the way of the PSPgo.

Steam currently sits at the top of the pile in terms of digital game services, and Valve is clearly going to fight hard to keep that top spot. Expect to start seeing Steam everywhere.